Lars von Trier comes to America! (sort of)

As I was flying back to New York from Park
City on Sunday, Lars von Trier was also flying into the city – via a T1 line. The famously flight-phobic filmmaker
(who has been making pictures highly critical of US cultural history for almost ten years, but has – legendarily
– never set foot in the States) made an appearance at the IFC Center this weekend via iChat, timed to coincide
with the NY premiere of his latest, Manderlay. The audience asked questions, and Uncle Lars, speaking into a
webcam from the basement of his home in Denmark, answered. Von Trier claimed to be excited about the pure technological
aspect of the chat, although no amount of futurism could apparently cure the fact that, as he puts it, he "hate(s)
talking to people". indieWIRE has a full
report on the event; the digital Lars' most interesting revelation? He's calling the America the Beautiful trilogy
short. Manderlay was to have been the Brechtian series' second film of three (Dogville got the thorny
ball rolling), but its planned follow-up, Wasington, has apparently been canned due to script problems. Even
better news: Von Trier plans to make a Danish comedy instead.